Babbo Chef Frank Langello Lost His Home During Hurricane Sandy

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Elizabeth Meltz, who works on food safety and sustainability issues for Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s restaurant group, writes that careful planning and lots of emergency measures were not enough to salvage inventory after the power went out. Despite thousands of dollars of dry ice, most of the food at the group’s restaurants had to be tossed, including entire wheels of cheese. While they’ve all been brought back up to speed and have reopened, Babbo’s executive chef Frank Langello was not so lucky: His family’s Staten Island home was destroyed during the storm surge, so next Monday Batali and Bastianich are holding a fund-raiser at Otto. Tickets are $95 for general entry, but $195 gets you admission and a white truffle pizza. Get all the details here. [Atlantic, Friends of Frank]